Contemporary Leaders

Jack Adler-McKean is a performer-researcher who focuses on instruments of the tuba family. Recent projects include performances with Ensemble Modern and Klangforum Wien, productions on stage at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Luzerner Theater, collaborations on new solo works with Sarah Nemtsov and George Lewis, premières at the BBC Proms and Darmstädter Ferienkurse, and recitals in Rome and Buenos Aires. His research activities include presentations at conferences in Paris and Klagenfurt, working with tuba students in Ankara and Oslo, giving seminars for composers in London and Boston, and publishing articles in the Historic Brass Society Journal and Oxford Handbook of Wind Instruments; his first book, The Playing Techniques of the Tuba, was published in 2020. He also curates the Contemporary Music for Tuba collection for Edition Gravis, and his own works are published by Potenza Music. Having studied in Manchester and Hanover, he was awarded his PhD in 2022 from the Royal Northern College of Music.

Ettore Biagi is a Vienna-based clarinetist active on the international classical and contemporary music scene. He has been performing regularly with Klangforum Wien, both in leading and sectional roles, and as principal bass clarinet with the London Symphony Orchestra. Previous collaborations include with Ensemble Intercontemporain, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia, and others. He is pursuing an Artistic Research PhD at the University of Performing Arts in Vienna, with the aim of seeking, creating, and defining Resonant Listening in New Music. He designs entirely original solo performances that range from stream-like, pure improvisations to collective co-creation and new commissions for solo clarinet. Performances have taken him to Berlin (Philharmonie and Pierre Boulez Saal), Paris (Philharmonie and Théâtre du Châtelet), the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Barbican Centre in London, Yamaha Hall in Tokyo, the KKL Luzern, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the MüPa Concert Hall in Budapest, the Parco della Musica in Rome, Musica nova Helsinki, the Heidelberg and Prague Spring Festivals, and the Salzburg Festival.

Claire Chenette is principal oboe with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and a member of the new music ensembles Nief-Norf and WildUp, with whom she was nominated for a 2019 Grammy Award for best small ensemble performance. She has dedicated herself to expanding the oboe canon by commissioning, recording, and performing at such contemporary music institutions as the Big Ears, Lucerne, and Ojai Festivals and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series. Claire Chenette also plays folk music and is passionate about interdisciplinary projects that blur genres and subvert traditional expectations of what classical music is and who it is for. Recent projects include collaboratively scoring the experimential theater production STYX Tours for Luzerner Theater; developing the lecture recital/live sauerkraut demo Culture is a Verb: Exploring the connections between fermentation, social change, and artistic practice; and co-writing a space-rock musical about reproductive freedom on Planet Chattanooga.

Estelle Costanzo is a harpist and performer who produces interdisciplinary projects that blur boundaries between music and the visual arts. Her artistic focus is on work in the area where music and theater interface with contemporary music. Estelle Costanzo studied harp with Gabriella Bosio at the conservatory in her native city of Turin, with Chantal Mathieu at the Haute École de Musique in Lausanne, with Sarah O'Brien at the Basel University of Music, and with Frédérique Cambreling at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique and won second prize at the Concours Nicati in 2015. She has been involved both conceptually and as a musician/performer in numerous music theater productions, including in the field of music education, and has performed at Lucerne Festival, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, and the Philharmonie du Luxembourg. She is also a co-founder of the new music ensembles neuverBand and TooHotToHoot? as well as the harp duo AEcstaly and is a member of the Basel Sinfonietta. She also performs with Ensemble Recherche, Collegium Novum Zurich, Ensemble Proton, and the Basel Chamber Orchestra and appears regularly at international festivals.

Deepa Goonetilleke is a versatile hornist, performing a range of repertoire from classical to contemporary music on both modern and natural horn. As a chamber musician, she has been a guest at such festivals as the Ultraschall Festival Berlin, Venice Biennale, Rainy Days Festival, Festival de Musique de Strasbourg, George Enescu Festival, and Warsaw Autumn Festival. She has worked regularly with Ensemble Modern, MusikFabrik, and Ensemble Linea and has performed with Elision, Basel Sinfonietta, Ensemble Ascolta, Hessischer Rundfunk Big Band, Würzburg Philharmonic, Chineke! Orchestra, Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz, and the Norrlands Operan Orkester in Sweden. Deepa Goonetilleke is a member of Trio Radial, an ensemble which focuses on commissioning new repertoire for its unique instrumentation of horn, cello, and clarinet. She has been a tutor at diverse education programs with Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Linea, and Klangspuren Schwaz.

Markus Hohti is a cellist of great versatility – equally at home whether playing at contemporary music concerts, chamber music festivals, or jazz clubs. He has developed a special interest in electroacoustic music and cross-genre projects. He performs actively as a soloist and chamber musician and with his ensembles defunensemble and Rödberg Trio. Markus Hohti’s most memorable solo performances include Brian Ferneyhough’s legendary Time and Motion Study 2 at the Helsinki Festival and as a soloist in Sebastian Fagerlund’s Stone on Stone with Avanti! Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu. He has premiered hundreds of new pieces and collaborated with such renowned artists as Pierre Boulez, Sofia Gubaidulina, Kaija Saariaho, Pekka Kuusisto, and Nadia Sirota. In 2011, the KLANG-concert series was born at the Helsinki Music Center through his initiative. He is also a co-founder and co-director of the Kino Soi! concert series and the Ristiveto Festival. A committed and experienced pedagogue, Markus Hohti was appointed senior lecturer at Tampere University of Applied Sciences in 2014.

Winnie Huang, this year’s “artiste étoile” at Lucerne Festival, was born in China, raised in Australia, and is now primarily active in Europe — as a violinist, gestural performer, composer, and artistic researcher. She is Co-Director and violinist of the Paris-based contemporary music ensemble soundinitiative. Huang’s experience as a participant in the Lucerne Festival Academy was formative. She currently maintains a close association with Lucerne Festival as a Contemporary Leader, serving as a curator for the Forward Festival and as a violin coach each summer. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Trustees for Eavesdropping London and on the advisory board for the journal FORUM+. Central to Huang’s artistic vision is her ongoing collaboration with both emerging and established composers, including Liza Lim, Jessie Marino, Richard Barrett, Kristine Tjøgersen, Charlie Sdraulig, Bernhard Lang, Sivan Cohen Elias, Michael Beil, and Clara Iannotta. She regularly performs with ensembles such as Nadar Ensemble, lovemusic, Ensemble Linea, and Down the Rabbit Hole and appears at leading festivals including Ars Musica in Brussels, the Donaueschinger Musiktage, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, MaerzMusik in Berlin, ManiFeste in Paris, the Ruhrtriennale, and Warsaw Autumn. Career highlights have included solo performances at the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and Lucerne Festival. Huang has a particular passion for musical-gestural projects, which she develops either independently or in close collaboration with composers. Following several years as an Assistant Professor of Artistic Research at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, Huang — who has taught as a guest lecturer at numerous international institutions — was appointed Associate Professor for Research in Music Performance at the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana in Lugano in 2025.

July 2025

Helga Karen (*1991) is a Finnish pianist specialized in performance of classical contemporary music. She has performed as a soloist and chamber music musician in various contemporary music festivals such as Lucerne Festival, soundSCAPE, Musica Nova, ISA2015, Stockhausen Courses and Concerts, Impuls Academy and International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt. Helga Karen has won several prizes at various competitions, including first prizes in Giovani Musicisti Music Competition, Stockhausen Concert and Courses, Karlsruhe Contemporary Music Competition,  Orpheus Chamber Music Competition, and the Fritz Gerber Award. Currently she is working on her PhD, which explores Stockhausen’s piano pieces, at the Sibelius Academy in Finland.

Bassist Edward Kass performs frequently with such new music groups as Ensemble Dal Niente and The Callithumpian Consort and at such festivals as Tanglewood, Lucerne Festival, and the Pacific Music Festival. Since 2016, he has performed with soprano Nina Guo as Departure Duo, a duo committed to performing, commissioning, and researching music written for soprano and double bass. Recent duo performances include recitals at Spoleto Festival USA, Yellow Barn, Omaha Under the Radar, and KM28. Their commissioning work was recently recognized with a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program grant.

Marina Kifferstein (she/they) is a violinist and generative artist based in New York City. Equally comfortable in major international venues and DIY spaces, they enjoy a diverse career that encompasses contemporary chamber music, improvisation, composition, classical performance, and experimental practices. She is a founding member of TAK ensemble and The Rhythm Method string quartet, a member of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, and a regular guest with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Wet Ink, and the Talea Ensemble. As an active touring artist, recent performances have taken them to Asia, Europe, South America, and Canada and across the continental USA. In addition to regularly conducting residencies at universities including Harvard, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Huddersfield, and the Hochschule der Künste in Zurich, they are on the faculty of the United Nations International School, Point Counterpoint, The Composer’s Institute at Lake George Music Festival, the Composers Conference, and the Lucerne Festival Academy. Marina Kifferstein is currently a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, with a focus on just intonation in 20th-century chamber music for strings.

American violist Stephen Upshaw regularly appears in festivals around the world, including the BBC Proms, Donaueschingen, Aldeburgh, Lucerne, Aix-en-Provence, Wien Modern, and Glastonbury, where he recently collaborated with Max Richter and Tilda Swinton. Much in demand as a chamber musician, he is a member of the award-winning Solem Quartet, recognized as one of the most innovative and adventurous quartets of its generation. A noted interpreter of contemporary music, Stephen Upshaw is also a member of London’s Riot Ensemble, winners of the Ernst von Siemens Foundation Ensemble Prize. He has worked with many of today’s leading composers and taken part in more than 300 world premieres, including chamber music by Georg Haas, Clara Iannotta, and Chaya Czernowin and solo works by Mark Simpson, Simon Holt, Michael Finnissy, and Errollyn Wallen. He is a professor at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and in recent years has given masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music, Cambridge University, Royal College of Music Stockholm, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Michigan, among others. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Strad magazine, Classical Music Magazine, and Gramophone.

Raimonda Žiūkaitė (born in 1991 in Vilnius, Lithuania) is a composer, researcher, and performe who is based between Berlin, Salzburg, and Vilnius. She studied composition in Vilnius, Vienna, Salzburg, and Bern and in 2020 earned her Doctor of Arts degree from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. She currently resides in Berlin, where she studies composition with a focus on experimental music theater at the Berlin University of the Arts. Her compositions include a short opera, symphonic and chamber orchestra works, and numerous chamber and electronic music pieces. Raimonda Žiūkaitė is also active as a performance artist and singer, often investigating such topics as social media, (mis)communication, alienation, and absurdity.